MHIRT Welcomes 2015 University of Hawaii Student Trainees

After completing a successful first year, the Minority Health International Research Training (MHIRT) program at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) welcomes 10 new diverse, highly motivated and dedicated students in its second year.

This year’s incoming class includes five undergraduate students, four post-baccalaureate students and one currently enrolled in a graduate program. Four of the trainees are of Filipino descent, two are Pacific Islanders, two Asian Americans and two are Native Hawaiians. Their academic disciplines include Biology, Psychology, Mechanical Engineering, Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering and Public Health.

The goal of the MHIRT program is to increase the number of minority scientists in biomedical research. For this year, the program aims to continue to provide the trainees an intellectually stimulating research experience as well as safe and enriching international cultural exchange.

Students meet as a group once a week to learn the eight steps for conducting research: 1) Identification of an important problem that needs solving, 2) Reading the literature, 3) Formulating a hypothesis (or at least clearly stating the question to be answered), 4) Respecting Responsible Conduct in Research, 5) Designing the study, 6) Conducting the research at a foreign field site, 7) Analyzing the results and drawing conclusions, and 8) Communicating the results to the community and professional colleagues. Also, students meet frequently with their UH mentors. In the coming weeks, students will identify the research projects they will be conducting in summer and will have Skype meetings with their international mentors. In third week of May students will attend a four-day workshop, wherein they will be introduced to basic principles of several scientific techniques and will prepare for travel to international research sites.

The students will be traveling in May/June 2015 to their designated international location to conduct their research on various issues on minority and health disparities for eight (8) weeks. This year, the students will have the opportunity to conduct research in Thailand, Cameroon, South Korea, Australia and Malaysia.